Pages

Sunday, October 03, 2010

October's here and I'm already busting out the orange and black-- as you can see.

I love Halloween, but my reasons for loving the holiday as an adult bears little resemblance to why I loved it as a kid. Up until Jr. High Halloween was all about the candy. I can't remember exactly how many years my friends and I stretched out of our trick-or-treating, but I'm sure we tried to look as young as we could for as long as possible in hopes of stuffing our guts full of sugar. One reason to be grateful my adult height didn't show up until high school I suppose...

But it wasn't until I became a blogger that I really began to appreciate Halloween for everything it has to offer.

I suppose I began to like Halloween a little more once I had kids. There's something about taking a six-month-old baby and putting her in a pea-in-the-pod costume that makes a mother melt a little-- but I digress. Kids are great though. Once October arrives they're already poking me in the ribs and asking me when I'm going to put the decorations up and, strangely, I don't mind. For a while I was confused over my eagerness to fuss with the fake cobwebs and light-up ghosts, but as I was fiddling with my blog design, it dawned on me-- this is right up my alley.

What's not to love about a holiday that celebrates the stuff I read, watch & review all year long?

Halloween has it all. I guarantee that Halloween night is going to bring kids to my door dressed up as comic-book heroes, Disney characters, witches, vampires, ghosts, fairies and werewolves-- only all my favorite stuff in the world. Many of my favorite blogs have already started with Halloween-themed posts and contests including Carl's R.I.P. Challenge over at Stainless Steel Droppings , Book Chick City with her All Hallows Eve themed posts (would it be bad if I stole a few ideas?) and Elder Signs Press, which is kicking off their Paranormal Fiction Month (to which I fully intend to contribute).

Halloween is just a great time of year. It not only kicks off the holiday season (another reason my kids are perking-up these days) but it's a time in which we get to revel in our superstitious sides by rehashing favorite ghost stories and watching scary paranormal-themed movies ("Paranormal Activity 2" comes out the 22nd). I can't count how many times I scared myself with "The Exorcist" this time of year. Dare I admit I even look forward to the Halloween-themed episodes of my favorite shows?

Yeah...I'm kind of excited October is here. Sometimes it's hard to maintain the enthusiasm we had when we started blogging so it's nice to have a time of year that segues nicely into a theme that fits the blog. I'm going to start digging through my book piles right now to find just the right list of paranormal and horror fiction to get me started on my October blogging. I think I'll pull some DVDs out too...

My FAVORITE part of Halloween is having the excuse to rewatch all of those scary and crazy movies. I love being scared (though not at that exact moment!). And oh, Exorcist is one of those movies that NEVER get old!

I have always loved Halloween. I never had any lag time between childhood and adulthood. I liked it every year all the way through. My parents used to raise their eyebrows when I was in high school and dress up to go out, but not even my parents can cite a reason for not dressing up on Halloween.

I hold the memories of costume party hopping through my college years quite precious. Those were good times.

And when teenage trick-or-treaters who don't even really have a costume knock on my door, I smilingly give them candy.

Some of the appeal of Halloween comes from its simple fun nature and that you don't have to be a part of any particular religion to participate. You just do it, and no one expects you to buy them a present. Now if only we could get the day off work!